


when we're living we'll be living it right

by lochTenderness (theseourbodies)



Series: gold coast [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Blushing, Future Fic, Living Together, M/M, Pro Basketball Player Kagami Taiga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24445819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/lochTenderness
Summary: They talk about it, and then argue a little, but in the end whether or not they want to see Kise is never even in question. They agree to let Kise stay, Taiga marks the week of Kise’s visit on the bedraggled wall calendar hanging on the fridge, and then he mostly forgets all about it. Or, he forgets until Taiga comes back to their two-bedroom, fully furnished home one day to find Kuroko studiously beating the shit out of their disgustingly dusty spare futon in the backyard and realizes: Oh shit, Kise doesn’t know they’re dating.
Relationships: Kagami Taiga/Kuroko Tetsuya
Series: gold coast [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017337
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92





	when we're living we'll be living it right

**Author's Note:**

> k & k fall in love and get together and the forget to tell anyone for tWO YEARS
> 
> Warnings: brief description of near anxiety attack & anxiety related to one partner briefly thinking the other doesn't want people to know they're dating

Of all their old friends, Kise’s the best traveled. A combination of the job and Kise’s increasingly frantic journeys to find himself take him all over the place fairly frequently, so it shouldn’t surprise Taiga when Kuroko shows him an email from Kise one day in mid-September. After a long few moments of squinting at the tiny phone screen like an old man and letting Kuroko silently laugh at him, Taiga finally figures out that Kise’s asking if he can stop by and see them the next time he’s in L.A. He doesn’t want to impose but he’d like to ask to stay with them for a few days and catch up. Taiga’s actually a little embarrassed it took him so long—even with the bulk of the message made up of emojis and exclamation marks, it’s practically reserved by Kise’s standards.

“Oh, he wants to meet up? He wants to stay with us, so—hey, why the hell couldn’t you have just told me all this! I thought at least it would be something interesting.” 

“Watching Kagami-kun stare at my phone like my great grandfather is soothing. I like to imagine that Kagami-kun will be just as silly when he is old and grey as he is now.” 

“ _Oi,_ you--” Taiga lunges for him, intent, and forgets all about Kise as Kuroko wheezes soft laughter in his ear. 

They talk about it, and then argue a little, but in the end whether or not they want to see Kise is never even in question. They agree to let Kise stay, Taiga marks the week of Kise’s visit on the bedraggled wall calendar hanging on the fridge, and then he mostly forgets all about it. Or, he forgets until Taiga comes back to their two-bedroom, fully furnished home one day to find Kuroko studiously beating the shit out of their disgustingly dusty spare futon in the backyard and realizes: Oh shit, Kise doesn’t know they’re dating. 

To be fair, no one does. Or, they haven’t told anyone, anyway. Not Alex or Tatsuya, not Taiga’s dad. None of the friends they keep in touch with from Japan, their oldest friends by now, know. Taiga thinks that some or most of his teammates probably know, because Taiga probably talks about Kuroko more than you might talk about a regular roommate. It hadn’t been a decision he and Kuroko had made; Taiga thinks, belatedly embarrassed, that they had mostly just forgotten that it was something that they needed to share with other people. 

It’s just that -- nothing really changed that much when it happened. Nothing besides some basic stuff: Kuroko living here with Taiga (for keeps, for real, Tetsuya calling his name when he saw Taiga waiting for him anxiously at the terminal exit, because he always sees Taiga first; Tetsuya coming closer through the crowd as fast as he could, laughing into Taiga’s neck when Taiga grabbed him tight and pulled him in and close and his, forever) and Taiga being able to give in to every stupid whim to touch the tips of Kuroko’s hair or press his nose where Kuroko’s neck met his shoulder and just breath him in. But the basics of who they were, with and without one another—that hasn’t changed at all. 

He watches Kuroko swing a broom handle at their futon again and again, smooth like he’s swinging an axe or a bat. Taiga gets distracted thinking about Kuroko in baseball whites until he upsets himself thinking about Kuroko in baseball whites because he chose baseball over basketball, and then he throws open the sliding door in disgust at himself and stomps out. 

“That for Kise?” He asks, still feeling stupid. 

Kuroko steps back from the job and wipes at his sweaty face with his sleeve. It’s a hell of a picture, and Taiga calms down watching the familiar flex of Kuroko’s bare arms. When he tears his eyes away, Kuroko’s smirking behind his sleeve, but that’s fine, too. It’s all part of the package. 

“No, it is for me. I will not put a guest on the floor when we have a perfectly good bedroom for him.” 

They don’t call it the guest bedroom, mostly because they haven't had guests yet. When they’d bought the house together, it had been with the understanding that none of their university friends would be leaving the city to come and visit them in suburban bliss. Even Alex, who only lived on the other side of the city, hadn't made good on her threats about coming over to stay. Taiga had kind of counted on that, actually. 

“So, you’re going to sleep on the floor and not in our bed for the whole time he’s here?” It comes out like an accusation and Kuroko straightens up to look at him. He’s shocked, Taiga thinks, which is valid; Taiga’s shocked, too. 

“…Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” 

Kuroko leans against the beheaded broom handle. “It’s ok,” Kuroko says, voice a shade higher when he speaks Japanese. Taiga's not watching him hungrily anymore, but Kuroko's still quietly devastating whether Taiga's hot for him now-right-now or not. Sweaty and pink from the work, the sun doesn't wash him out like it usually does. It glitters in his hair, makes his watchful eyes endless blue. Taiga wants him so much and all the time; it used to scare him a little when he was younger, when the only thing he wanted more had been the game and someone to play against. It scares him a little still, now that Taiga's living and breathing basketball every day of the week and he still wants Kuroko just as much.

Taiga really had forgotten that people would probably want to know about his personal life. He’s still tight with Aomine and Kise, he and Midorima exchange scathing holiday cards every Christmas; Coach keeps up with both of them, and through her they keep up with Kiyoshi and Hyuuga. He still considers all of them friends, even the guys he doesn’t talk to regularly—even Murasakibara, who Taiga now mostly knows exclusively through the man’s infrequent texts to Tatsuya. 

Kuroko has always had more complex relationships with people. It occurs to Taiga that maybe he was the only one who forgot; maybe Kuroko hadn’t told their friends because he hadn’t wanted to, or he hadn’t thought they would be ok with it. And their families—Taiga never thought to tell his dad because it’s not really any of his business, but Kuroko talks to his grandmother every week, and usually his mom also. Taiga doesn’t know—he never thought to ask. 

It doesn’t really change much, Taiga tells himself uneasily. Kuroko never flinches from him, not in their apartment or now in their home, not out in public when Taiga gives in and gets a little handsy during a night out. And if Kuroko doesn’t want his oldest friends to even suspect that he’s dating Taiga, Taiga thinks that’s something they can talk about. He just wants to know now, before they have to deal with this and with the unsubtle audience of Kise Ryouta. 

He’s getting himself all bound up again; his mind’s starting to spin in earnest. Out here in the unrelenting sun in the backyard of the house they bought together, shadows come up at the corners of his vision. His hand itches around the metal of his ring and the chain; he’s gone from fidgeting with it to clenching it tight enough to cramp. 

"Taiga."

Kuroko snaps him out of it. Kuroko usually does. He comes in under Taiga’s building panic and smooths a hand down from Taiga’s bare shoulder, down his arm, shockingly cool. He wraps Taiga’s wrist in a loose grip, but the weight of it settles Taiga like a stone. 

"Taiga, look at me." 

Taiga does, and Kuroko rewards him instantly, brings his other hand up to curl around Taiga's neck, the back of his head, cool fingers catch-slipping on sweaty skin behind Taiga's ear and just under his hairline. 

"I must, I--" Kuroko stutters in English and then switches abruptly, looking annoyed. "I think I owe Taiga an apology." 

Amazingly, this does not make Taiga feel any less nervous, but he doesn't tense. He doesn't think he can, not with Kuroko's hands on him like this. 

"It was not my intention to mislead our friends when we--" Kuroko falters again, and in Japanese it's even more strange. "--when you asked me to spend my life with you," Kuroko continues quietly, and that's worse, so much worse than 'when we became a couple' or 'when you asked me out.' Taiga's face is _on fire._ "I was so happy I couldn't believe it. And when I came here, when we moved from your apartment to our house, I became very self-centered. It is not that I deliberately did not tell them, it is only that I--" 

"Forgot," Taiga breathes, and Kuroko nods. "Shit, yeah. I think I was the same." 

Kuroko blinks up at him-- surprised, maybe-- and then smiles. He's got the faintest lines on his face already, little brackets around his mouth appearing and disappearing again when he smiles like this, like magic. 

"Then I will only say that I have never been ashamed. Never when Taiga was a glutton, never when Taiga was angry, never when Taiga was being foolish. Certainly never when Taiga did the bravest thing, and asked me to come here and be with you." 

Taiga is genuinely worried that his head is going to explode. Kuroko tugs him in close and lets Taiga hide his face in Kuroko's shoulder, but he doesn't stop talking.

"I like you," he says like a secret, like Taiga had that day over the phone two years ago now, Taiga stuttering over the phrase like a schoolgirl. "I love you, and nothing would make me happier than telling Kise-kun exactly that. It is only that it is Kise-kun," Kuroko says, warm and exasperated. Taiga pulls back a little to look him in the eyes. "And if we tell him when he gets here, the rest of our friends will know within minutes. I think they deserve better than that from us." Kuroko's hand on his wrist tightens; the fingers at Taiga's nape rub gentle circles, small motions offering maximum comfort. "I only want time to tell him and then tell our friends. That's all I wanted to ask from you." 

Taiga's already nodding, already agreeing, but Kuroko shakes his head back at him firmly. Taiga distantly thinks that they must look like morons, nodding at one another, yes and no. 

"Think about it," Kuroko tells him firmly, lets Taiga stand straight again. "If you would rather not, then we can tell them now, send a message and get it over with or take a little time before he gets here." 

Taiga takes one careful breath, in and out. It helps that Kuroko lets him go so he can center himself in his own gravity. Kuroko, bright in the sun, breaths with him. 

"If we don't tell Kise first I think he might actually cry," Taiga mutters eventually. Hands on his hips, he digs into the ground with the toe of his sneaker, thinking. "But if we tell Kise in person before we tell anyone else, I can guarantee that Momo will personally fly in and cut my balls off, so. I do want to tell them before Kise gets here. I want-- I want time to do it right." It's embarrassing to say it like that, but Taiga's just come to grips with the fact that Kuroko can make him do embarrassing shit without even trying. 

Kuroko cocks his head to the side and smiles at him. "It is ok if it takes a while," he tells Taiga, almost like a question. Taiga nods decisively. 

"That's fine. If we have to come out to a hundred people, a hundred times, I'll do it. I just--" Taiga falters a little, embarrassed again. He scrubs his hands over his face, back through his hair and mutters, "We've done our time living apart. I don't want to be away from you unless I have to be. Even if we're still in the same house, if nothing else changes but that you're sleeping on the futon, I-I don't-- want that." 

Kuroko's eyes go wide as Taiga talks until they're huge in his slack face. Taiga stares him down, absolutely burning red, until Kuroko breaks first. He hauls the bottom of his shirt up so the front covers his own red face muttering " _bakagami_ " into its cover. Taiga laughs outright, scaring a few birds out of the whispy trees, and reels Kuroko in to hug him tight, and close, and his. Kuroko keeps muttering into Taiga's chest, but he can't fool Taiga-- his smile is huge and bright when Taiga leans down to check.


End file.
